The Long Road
by Captain Len
Summary: Severitus. This is the long road to a better relationship between Severus and Harry. This is again a re-upload of a story I took down awhile back. AU not taking into account HBP or DH.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Dedicated to Hedgie. This is a re-upload so for those of you who already read it, there's nothing new yet!

Disclaimer: I don't own HP

Chapter 1 – A bad day

Severus Snape was having a bad day. The Headmaster had insisted he take a group of the 7th years to a muggle musical. For Severus there were several things that he hated with a passion. He hated the Dark Lord, he hated melted cauldrons and he hated musicals. The Headmaster of course knew this and yet was making him and Professor McGonagall escort them. He looked around at the group; it consisted of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, and Draco Malfoy. He felt like hitting his head, this was the worst group in the world to be in charge of, it was like a disaster waiting to happen. The Dark Lord was still at large and here he was taking a bunch of 17/18 year olds to a musical in muggle London. He had of course been told to keep a special eye out for Harry Potter, however, he knew that there would also be Order members all around.

McGonagall shook him out of his reverie, "Come Severus, we are here, why don't you stay here while I pick up the tickets." He sighed again, after replying with an affirmative, he went back to his thoughts about the musical in question. They were here to see Wicked the musical. The Headmaster had thought it was amusing due to the fact that it was about witches. The two girls in the group looked slightly more excited than the guys, they didn't look as thrilled to be there. No one however dared talk to him as he stood watching over them with his customary sneer. Finally McGonagall came back with the tickets and they went in. Having found their seats, the musical started, Severus didn't pay any attention as he hated the kind of music and storyline that the musical had. So back to his customary sneer, most people believed that he hated the world and that it was his natural disposition. However, most people didn't know that he was a Death Eater, a spy and many other things. He just let people assume that they knew all about him. However, no one actually knew anything about him for certain, they just assumed they did.

Suddenly, something more urgent pierced painfully through his musings. His right arm, above the elbow burned, he knew that if he lifted his sleeve up he would find his dark mark had gone black. This was obviously awkward for him as he was sitting in a muggle theatre and he needed to get out quickly. The Dark Lord might suspect something if he didn't leave then. He looked to his right for a way out, there was none, he looked left and he found the emerald green eyes of Harry Potter looking at him. Harry shook his head, Severus was confused, he didn't understand what Harry meant. He continued to look at Harry, then to his relief the interval was called. He rushed out of his seat towards Harry. Harry stopped him dead with a hand on his arm: "Don't go Professor, he knows, please don't go," Harry pleaded with him. Severus went cold, how in hell did Harry know. Then Severus took a closer look at Harry; he took in the white face, shaking shoulders and the small trail of blood on that famous scar. Severus then realised that Harry had had a vision "But how do we know that it was a real vision this time? We never finished Occlumency," he said this slightly apologetically. Harry looked taken aback at the slight apology in his tone.

"If I don't go, he will definitely know, if I do go then there is a chance that he may not know." Harry stood thinking for awhile,

"I think that you shouldn't go sir, I know that you are extremely important to the cause, however, you will be just as important without this job. And sir, just to be slightly selfish, I do not want to see you crucio'd."

Severus took this into account, then said quietly "I must go, I don't think I can stand not knowing, tell the Headmaster, tell him thankyou for being the father that I never had." This last he said quietly into Harry's ear so only he could hear. He then swept out of the theatre already well into the act he must play.

Harry then looked around at the staring group and sighed, he decided to ignore the stares and said to Professor McGonagall "Professor, we really have to get out of here before the show starts again." McGonagall gave the affirmative and they stepped out of the theatre. As they walked out a tallish woman walked up to them and said "Wotcher people, Severus came storming out, what is wrong?"

"Not now Nymphadora, we must get to Hogwarts quickly," replied McGonagall sternly. Tonks then took in the sight of Harry and agreed immediately. She ushered them to an alley and pulled out a pen. She whispered "_Portus_" and then looking at the group said "hold on everyone." They grasped the pen and everyone felt the unpleasant sensation accompanying portkeys. They found themselves just outside the gates of Hogwarts, they all rushed inside and up to the castle. They reached the entrance hall where McGonagall said "Everyone to their dormitories except for Mr Potter, please." Harry's friends gave him a look telling him that they didn't want to leave him, however he firmly shook his head indicating that they should go upstairs. Everyone went to their respective dormitories while Harry, Tonks and McGonagall moved up to the Headmasters office after giving the password at the gargoyles. The Headmaster didn't look surprised at seeing them as the usual twinkle had left his eyes and he didn't offer them a sherbet lemon. He just asked quietly "He's gone hasn't he?"

"Yes sir" replied Harry "he also told me to tell you and although he probably wouldn't want me to say this in front of people, he wanted to say thanks for being the father he never had." Harry was only mildly surprised at how close to tears the occupants of the room were. He had a lot of thinking to do about Severus Snape. He had for the first time had a civil conversation with the man and he had been almost apologetic. He chased the thoughts out of his head, he needed to focus on telling the headmaster what had happened.

He turned back and was about to speak when suddenly his head felt like it was about to explode and he collapsed to the floor. The dreaded vision had begun. He could see the room, quite dim. He was Voldemort as he could see all the white masked Death Eater's kneeling in a circle around him. Voldemort started speaking in his usual sibilant voice "sssso there isss a traitor among usss. Doesss thisss traitor want to own up of ssshal I jussst point him out?" No one in the Death Eater circle stirred.

"Ok then, I am warning you it will be worssse for you." Still no one stirred.

Voldemort whirled around and pointed to one of the masked men and said "you stand forth and reveal yourssself ssso your fellow Death Eater'sss may ssseee who you are." With his head held high the man stepped out of the circle and with a flourish flipped his mask off and threw it away in disdain. He then took the characteristic Death Eater cloak off to reveal the muggle clothes he had been wearing he had had to wear to the musical. In his mind Harry was screaming not to make Voldemort more angry than he already was. However, unfortunately Severus Snape was not telepathic. Severus faced Voldemort defiantly and spat "Yes Tom". This angered Voldemort even more and Severus could see it in the way that Voldemort was shaking. Voldemort shouted "_Crucio_, _Crucio, Crucio_" with as much venom as possible. The torture went on and Harry felt more pain with every curse that hit Severus. As for Severus himself he was in agony with every new curse. Voldemort then said, "and let that be a lessssson to you and your preccccious order". Voldemort sent another curse at Severus and with this curse he finally passed out with the amount of injuries he had sustained. "Take him back" said Voldemort. Then Harry was back in his own mind, only vaguely aware of the people who were worried around him.


	2. Chapter 2: The hospital wing

Chapter 2 – The Hospital Wing

Severus felt the sensation that he was moving, however, trying to open his eyes was more painful than at first he thought it would be. Instead he decided to listen as opening his eyes was not an option.

"Bloody hell, he weighs a ton, why did we get landed with this job?" he heard the Death Eater holding his head say.

"It's because we're new and probably expendable," replied the other one, obviously lifting him by his feet. Severus was slightly amused by this. He was amused because the Death Eater who was holding him by his feet sounded more intelligent however, they had yet to realise that they could use magic to lift him up and it wouldn't be any trouble for them at all. As it was they were carrying him to wherever their destination was. He carried on listening however, he was finding it almost impossible to stay awake, in the end he surrendered to the darkness.

The next time he awoke he was lying in a bed, he tried once more to open his eyes, this time however, it was a lot easier and without much pain at all. He looked around him to find the face of Albus Dumbledore staring down at him.

"Good evening Severus."

"More like a bad evening I would say," croaked Severus, his throat extremely sore.

"Hmmm, yes I can see how that would be a more appropriate description of the evening's events," replied Dumbledore.

"A helluva lot more accurate I would say," said a voice to his left. Severus looked around to identify who the other person in the room was. He found himself looking at Harry Potter. He looked confused and Harry noticed it almost immediately, he decided to put the Professor out of his misery.

"I am in here because I saw what happened this evening and hence was taken ill. Madame Pomfrey would not let me out yet," Harry was exasperated as he didn't see that what he had felt warranted a trip to the Hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey herself appeared from her office and immediately went straight to Severus' side. Harry watched in amusement as she bustled around him just as she had done when he himself had been taken to the Hospital Wing. It was obvious that Snape hated her bustling just as much as he did. He looked up when Snape asked Dumbledore how he got to the Hospital wing in the first place. Madame Pomfrey however, refused to let Dumbledore answer him by forcing Snape to drink dreamless sleep potion. Then she moved to Harry's bed and made him drink some of that potion as well. Within minutes the two patients were fast asleep. Dumbledore let himself out of the wing and headed towards his own quarters. Soon the castle was silent.

Severus next woke to the sounds of many students talking. He turned to look and sure enough the so called _Golden Trio_ were nattering away, well on closer inspection Granger and Weasley were chatting loudly, Potter on the other hand was taking only a small part in the conversation. In the end Potter broke up the conversation with "Guys, go on get to classes, you can help me catch up when I finally get out of here, go on," and with that the other two left the wing, with the obviously pitying looks. Dumbledore then strode into the wing, "Ah excellent you are both awake, now I can tell you what happened." Harry looked startled and then looked over to Severus, for the first time noticing that he was awake.

"So what did happen?" asked Severus, still slightly croakily.

"Well, Harry here had the vision of you being 'questioned' and although he didn't say so last night, every time you got hit with a curse he himself was in pain." Harry blushed and looked away, he hadn't wanted to tell the older man of this fact. "Anyway, after you had gone unconscious, Voldemort instructed some Death Eater's to take you back. Harry took this to mean that you would be brought back to Hogwarts. Unfortunately it was awhile before Harry was lucid enough to tell us this. As soon as we heard this information, Minerva and I went to the gates to find you in a heap outside them. We brought you back and here you are now. You really owe it to Mr Potter here, another hour or so and you would most certainly not be here with us today." Again Harry looked embarrassed, yet another thing Harry had not wanted Severus to know. "Right well, now I must be off, I have classes to teach." With that Dumbledore walked out of the room.

"What did he mean, he has classes to teach?" asked Severus.

"He is taking over your classes while you are in the hospital wing," replied Harry "which according to Madame Pomfrey will be for awhile, the damage done to you was quite extensive."

"Potter, I am quite cognizant of that fact," snapped Severus harshly.

"Sorry sir," replied Harry quietly, who then proceeded to turn his back on Severus and look the other way.

Severus knew that he had been too harsh as soon as the words left his mouth. Potter had only been trying to help he knew and it was not Potter's fault he was stuck in the infirmary. However, he knew that he couldn't take back what he had said and that Potter would be ignoring him for awhile now, which although he didn't particularly enjoy Potter's company, there was nothing else for him to do.

Harry was confused and very bored. He had been thinking all morning about Severus Snape. He didn't understand how one minute he would be civil and then the next a total bastard. He realised that there was more to Severus Snape than meets the eye, however, he didn't know how to breach through the outer façade that was always held in place. On the other subject, there was nothing to do in the hospital wing, his friends were in classes and wouldn't be by until the next day to bring him his homework. He decided that maybe finally it would be a good time to turn back over so he wasn't completely ignoring Snape. He found that Snape was staring at the ceiling himself obviously bored. Harry decided to try and open a conversation with the man, so as to understand him better.

"I am sorry sir."

"Sorry for what?" asked Snape.

"That you ended up here," replied Harry.

"That would be my fault, I was the one who insisted on going," again Snape was being civil. What on earth was happening?

"I am sorry also for what happened during Occlumency," said Harry quietly.

"Now that you can be sorry for, what on earth were you doing going into my pensieve?" asked Snape still civilly. Harry really didn't understand, where had all the anger gone?

"I was looking for answers, the Headmaster was ignoring me that year and I wanted to know what was happening, I didn't mean…" Harry stopped talking suddenly and looked ashamed again "and I never…told anyone except Sirius and Remus, who were present anyway."

"Hmm, thankyou I think," replied Snape sarcastically. He was actually glad though, he had thought that it would have been all over the school by now. He was surprised though he never thought that he would be having a long civil conversation with Potter. By the look on Potter's face he was surprised as well, but then it hit him, it was because he no longer had to keep up the mask of the Death Eater, he could never go back to that because Voldemort knew he was the traitor. In a flash his world seemed to come tumbling down on him in that one sudden realisation. He was free; he could do what he wanted (well within reason of course). He then decided there and then that he would give Potter a chance, a chance to redeem himself in his eyes.

"Potter, if you really want to redeem yourself, then you are going to have to come back to me for the lessons in Occlumency. I am willing to give you an extra go if you will come," said Severus unexpectedly. Harry again looked surprised, but knew he would not turn down such an offer, especially as they had gone to being on civil terms for the first time ever.

"Of course sir, I will come," replied Harry.

"First lesson is when we get out of this goddamn hospital wing."

"Yes Sir."

With that they each went back to ignoring each other and both went back to their thoughts about the other.

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AN: Thanks to all of you who has taken an interest in this story :)


	3. Chapter 3: Release for one

AN: just received a review for the last chapter that I'd like to respond to but that person didn't login to review so here is my response:

I'd actually say that Severus was too proud to apologise at that moment to Harry and that's why, maybe he is a coward too.

Where I wrote: "he would give Potter a chance, a chance to redeem himself in his eyes." I meant just that, it seems to Severus that Harry did wrong (yes I know it was only childs curiosity) so in Severus' eyes Harry can redeem himself for that.

Hmm I'm not sure I've put what I meant properly there but I hope you all get what I mean. I would like to say though that these characters aren't necessarily gonna go the way that the books went and so that should possibly be taken into account when reading this fic.

Sorry about the lack of real action in this chapter and now on with the fic!

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Chapter 3 – Release for one

Much to Harry's pleasure he was released from the Hospital Wing after a couple of days, Madam Pomfrey had only wished to keep him under observation as he was not hurt as badly as Severus had been. As Harry slowly walked down the corridor on his way to breakfast he remembered the awkward leave-taking he had had with Severus.

_Flashback_

_Madam Pomfrey bustled in as she usually did quite early in the morning. _

"_Good morning Severus, good morning Harry, how are you both today?" she asked in good cheer as usual._

"_I am adequately comfortable thank you Madam Pomfrey," replied Severus._

"_I am fine," replied Harry._

_Madam Pomfrey as usual understood how to interpret these two remarks. Severus' remark meant that he really wanted to be out of the Hospital Wing but had given up hope that she would let him out, and he was also in a slight bit of pain. Harry's remark told her that he really was alright and was still itching to get out of the Wing._

"_Good news Harry, you may after my examination of you this morning be released from the Hospital Wing and go back to classes," she said, loving the smile this put on Harry's face. Of course Severus was looking bitter as he still could not really be moved from the Wing. She moved through the physical examination with Harry and she found him completely fit and immediately let him go after saying goodbye to Severus._

"_I'm sorry that you aren't able to leave the Wing yet, sir," Harry hesitatingly said as he was about to leave._

"_You do not have to pity me Mr Potter, go and find your friends, I know that is what you are dying to do," replied Severus trying to keep the bitter tone from creeping into his voice "I will send you an owl to tell you when our first lesson will be."_

"_Thank you sir," Harry replied and with that he left the Wing he hoped for the last time that year, but knowing his luck it wouldn't be._

_End Flashback_

Harry continued on until he reached the Great Hall where he was happily reunited with his friends and he sat down to eat breakfast with them as usual.

Meanwhile in the Hospital Wing Severus was feeling lonely and rather put out that Harry had been allowed to be released and he hadn't. So he sat there looking miserable for most of the day, until mid-afternoon he had a visitor.

Dumbledore swept into the room and walked up to where Severus was staring into space.

"Good afternoon Severus," he said as way of greeting.

"Afternoon Headmaster," Severus replied gloomily.

"My dear Severus don't be so gloomy, I have come to keep you company for awhile," said the Headmaster cheerily "now do you want a sherbet lemon?"

"No thank you," Severus barely managed to keep a civil tone at this question.

"Oh well, don't mind me then," replied the Dumbledore choosing one for himself "so what would you like to talk about?"

"Nothing," spat out Severus, his mood really wasn't getting any better with the Headmaster for company in fact it was getting worse.

"Well then I suggest we talk about young Mr Potter, is that alright?" asked Dumbledore still unsticking two sherbet lemons.

"That is adequate," replied Severus his bad mood diminishing only slightly as he thought about the boy who had basically saved his life.

"So may I ask Severus where is this new attitude for Mr Potter coming from? I do not mean after what happened the other day, I mean you already seemed to change your attitude before the incident," said Dumbledore looking at Severus with those pale blue eyes twinkling as usual. Severus sighed when Dumbledore asked that question because he didn't totally know the answer himself.

"I… I do not really… I am not sure," stammered Severus totally out of character for him. Dumbledore looked at him contemplating his answer. Severus withered under his stare. "It is complicated," Severus finally answered properly.

"Do not concern yourself Severus I will leave you time to understand yourself properly before I ask again, now I also came to give you this," Dumbledore said brandishing a wand. "Now I know this is not your own wand, however, since I know where Mr Ollivander is in hiding I managed to persuade him to create you a new wand," he handed the new wand to Severus.

"Thank you Headmaster, I was wondering what I would do without one," Severus replied gladly taking the wand in his hand, it was not his old wand but it still fit him pretty well. His mood brightened more as he got the wand, he could now do magic again. Dumbledore meanwhile had sat down and got more comfy.

"Headmaster, what have you been teaching my classes about in Defence?" asked Severus curiously as he had heard some weird rumours.

"Ah right yes…" stuttered Dumbledore "well…"

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the charms classroom talking quietly due to the fact that the tiny professor had made this lesson a review lesson.

"So, mate, erm what's with you and Snape?" asked Ron hesitantly having lost a battle with Hermione about who would ask Harry what was on both their minds.

Harry sighed and turned to his friends "Well, I couldn't leave him to die now could I?" Harry asked.

"Well, I wo-" Ron started but was cut off by Hermione.

"No of course you couldn't Harry," she said and glared at Ron "but why are you still being well nice to him?" Hermione asked perplexed. Ron nodded along as they both desperately wanted to know what was up with their friend.

"I don't really know to be honest guys, maybe if you ask again sometime I can tell you," Harry replied. They were cut off by small professor "Now Mr Potter will you show us the banishing charm please."

Harry sat staring out of the window at the snow falling, it was getting close to Christmas time and he still wasn't sure what he was going to do this Christmas. He was also thinking about why his attitude had changed towards Severus Snape. He still wasn't entirely certain, but he was pinning his new found civility towards the man on maturity. He Harry Potter had finally grown up enough to see that they were all on the same side and that there was no point in hating the man because he taunted Harry so much, Harry should just concentrate on working out how to defeat Voldemort.


End file.
